


Traces

by Josh89



Series: Serlina [1]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Alternate Universe - After College/University, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bisexual Female Character, Don't copy to another site, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Girls Kissing, Oaths & Vows, POV First Person, Present Tense, Romantic Fluff, Tags Are Fun, Tags Contain Spoilers, Tags May Change, Time Skips, Wedding Fluff, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 08:51:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20721506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh89/pseuds/Josh89
Summary: When Calina Moore meets her new roommate her first day of college, she has no idea how special the woman is going to turn out to be to her. A series of 'snapshots', or several moments taken from their lives together from that moment on over the course of several years.





	Traces

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hashtag_anthems](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hashtag_anthems/gifts).

> Calina is based on an old character of mine, one of my first characters I ever played. She was a Nord trainee bard who recently joined the Bard's College and was also a member of the Companions and the Dawnguard, as well as being a friend to the Greybeards.

When Calina meets her new roommate for the first time, Serana is standing by the door to the dorm that they’ll be sharing for the foreseeable future, looking very lost. Calina smiles softly at the other girl, trying to make her feel at ease. “Serana?”  
The black-haired girl nods nervously. “Are you Calina?”  
She has a very light accent, one that Calina can’t quite place, but the darker-skinned girl is genuinely intrigued. “Yes, that’s me. My friends call me Caly. I guess we’re roommates”.  
Calina unlocks the door with the key that she was given and pushes it open, leading the way into the room. As Serana looks around curiously, Calina takes a couple of minutes to familiarize herself with the layout of their dorm, quickly sharing her new discoveries with her new roommate when she’s done. They spend the rest of the day sitting on the couch, bonding over bad tv and telling embarrassing childhood stories, and by the end of the day Calina goes to bed happy that she’s made a new friend.  
~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~  
“You haven’t said much about your parents. If you don’t mind me asking, what are they like?” Calina asks over lunch the next day.  
Serana hesitates for a minute before answering, pausing her forkful of food halfway to her mouth. “Honestly? I don’t talk about them because I don’t really get along with them. My father is short-tempered and distant, obsessed with his books and ancient mythology. My mother is definitely more of a reasonable person than him, but she’s still just as obsessed with mythology. And neither of them exactly approves of certain things about my life, so we don’t get along too well”.  
“I’m guessing one of those things is sexuality?” Calina queries.  
Her roommate hesitates again before nodding, and quietly replies “Among other things such as my desire to actually do something with my life and be an author instead of some mythology-obsessed recluse like them, yes”.  
“I get that. I mean, my parents are accepting of mine, but it’s taken ages to get to that point with them and even then, there’s still times where it’s definitely not easy. But it takes time”.  
Serana sighs and turns her attention back to her salad. “I hope you’re right, Caly. I really do”.  
~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~  
Calina is sitting at her desk in her Latin class a couple of days later, waiting for the professor’s lecture to begin, when her best friend slips into the seat next to her and smiles warmly at her. “Oh, thank god. I didn’t know if I’d see anyone I knew in any of my classes today so I’m really glad to see you” Serana says cheerfully.  
“I’m glad to see you too. I didn’t know you were taking Latin as well. I thought you’d want to avoid it, given your parents’ and their obsession with mythology”.  
“Mythology and history aren’t necessarily the same thing, remember? My parents were never really interested in the languages, just in the stories about the gods and their prophecies. I find the Latin language fascinating, personally”  
“It is a fascinating language” Calina observes, before opening her notebook as the professor clears his throat at the front of the class.  
“Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Beginning Latin. I’m Professor Justin Klopacz, as noted in the syllabus for this course, which I’ll be handing out shortly. So, if you’re in the wrong class, then you should probably leave now”.  
~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~  
A couple of nights later, Calina sighs, putting aside the Latin papers she’s reading and opening her laptop. Her fingers practically dance over the keyboard as she types in her password to unlock it and opens up the chat app that she’s been using for the last couple of days, the window chiming immediate to announce she has unread messages. She glances quickly at the indicated tab of the screen, seeing a chat request from her friend ‘xxvampyfanxx’, and hits accept. ‘Journi has entered the chat’.  
“Hi Journi!” her friend greets her immediately.  
Calina smiles to herself, her fingers dancing across the keyboard as she types back. “Hi Vamp. How’s the writing going?”  
There’s a pause before her friend replies. “Slow. But I think the thing I’m working on right now is something good”.  
“I’m intrigued”.  
“How do you feel about romance/fantasy/adventure stories that involve vampires and supposedly-mythical heroes?” her friend asks.  
Calina chuckles. She supposes she shouldn’t really be surprised that her friend is working on something that involves vampires, given the screenname that she chose to use. “Depends how heavy the romance is, I guess”.  
“It’s heavy enough so that you know the romantic tension between the two of them is there, but light enough that it doesn’t really impact the plot”.  
“That’s the perfect amount. Alright, do tell”.  
~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~  
A year later, Calina is sitting at the desk in her room again, laptop open by her right hand with the chat server running, some loose papers by her left. “Journi, I need some advice”.  
The girl’s fingers dance across the keyboard as she taps in a reply. “Of course, Vampy. We’ve been friends for over a year now, you know I’m always happy to help. What’s up?”  
“I have a crush on this girl. She’s… honestly, she’s amazing. She’s kind, she’s sweet, she’s funny, she’s genuine. She’s got this amazing sense of right and wrong that’s just very endearing. And she’s got no idea how badly I want to tell her how I feel about her”.  
Calina sighs. “Why haven’t you told her how you feel?’  
“What if she doesn’t feel the same? She’s my best friend, Journi, and she has been since we met last year, I don’t know if I can risk losing her friendship. I don’t know what I’d do without her, honestly…”  
“If she’s anything like you say she is, I’m sure she doesn’t know what she’d do without you, either. Tell her how you feel, Vampy. You never know, she probably feels the same way about you” she types back, smiling to herself as she hits the ‘Enter’ key, already suspecting that she knows exactly who she’s talking to.  
There’s a pause before a reply appears in the chat window, and it’s short. “Alright, Journi”.  
‘xxvampyfanxx has left the chat’.  
Logging out of the chat software on her own computer and going back to the papers she needs to study for her Journalism work, it’s only a few minutes before there’s a knock at her door and a quiet voice calls her name. “Caly?”  
“Be there in a minute!” she replies hurriedly, now certain that she knows exactly who her online friend for the past year has been.  
She stands from her desk, making sure to push her chair in tidily before she heads for the door (a habit which she learned from her mom), and opens the door less than a minute later to her roommate and best friend, who is smiling. “That was hardly a minute”.  
“You’re right, it was only thirty seconds. Maybe 45, if you count the time it took me to stand and push my chair in. But that’s close enough. What’s up?”  
“Do you have a few minutes to talk? I just got some really good advice from an online friend and I’d really like to make the most of it”.  
“For you, anything” Calina replies cheerfully.  
It’s corny as heck, and it makes them both laugh for a couple of minutes. Once the laughter dies down again, Calina smiles at her best friend. “Where do you want to have this conversation?”  
“In your room, if that’s okay with you”.  
“Of course!”  
She sits down on the edge of her bed, facing her best friend, who sits down in her vacated computer chair. Serana looks nervous, and Calina is pretty sure she knows why, but she sits and waits for her friend to be comfortable enough to say what’s on her mind. After a couple of minutes, Serana sighs. “I’ve been thinking something over for the past few weeks, trying to find the right way to say these particular words, and even doubting whether it was worth saying them or not because I’ve been so terrified that they’re not going to have the desired effect. But I got some advice just a few minutes ago, and I’m going to just say it and if they don’t have the effect that I hope they will then that’s fine”.  
She pauses to catch her breath and steel herself for what she’s about to say. “I have a crush on you, Caly. I understand if you don’t feel the same or if my confession makes you feel uncomfortable, but I have a crush on you and I’ve had a crush on you for months now and I’ve finally worked up the courage to say something to you…”  
Before she can continue rambling, Calina stands, quickly crosses the gap between her bed and her computer chair, where Serana is sitting, and gently cups the other girl’s cheek with her hand. “I have a crush on you too”.  
~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~  
Serana likes to trace words on Calina’s back whenever she gets the chance, usually when the two of them are lying in bed together late at night. It’s a habit she’s developed in the 1 year since the two of them got together, and Calina is well aware of it, and in fact usually tries to predict exactly what her girlfriend is going to write next. But there’s one particular set of words that she’s been waiting ages for Serana to tell her, whether it’s in words or by tracing the letters on her back, and so far, she’s been disappointed. Calina suppresses a shiver as Serana’s hand slips under the fabric of the loose blue shirt that she’d chosen to wear to bed and a slender finger presses against the skin of her back, not wanting her girlfriend to know that she’s awake just yet, and her mind focuses on the movements of that one digit.  
A pair of horizontal strokes joined by a vertical one. That’s an I. A vertical stroke joined by a horizontal one at the bottom, a circle, the downwards-facing head of an arrow, a semicircle with a curved line. L-o-v-e. The downwards-facing head of an arrow with a horizontal line descending from it, a circle, a bell curve. Y-o-u. I love you. Calina’s breath stops for a moment, but it’s long enough. “You’re awake?” her girlfriend’s voice queries from behind her.  
In a fluid motion, the darker skinned girl rolls to face her girlfriend and pulls her into a searing kiss that lasts for more than a few seconds. As soon as both girls feel the need for air and finally pull away from each other, Calina rests her head against her lover’s, smiling. “I love you too”.  
~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~  
They’ve been together about three years now, and Serana’s still tracing letters on her girlfriend’s back. Mostly it’s just small things, such as ‘I love you’ or ‘you are beautiful’, but on Calina’s birthday it’s different. Calina lays face down on their bed while the other girl sits beside her, Serana’s warm fingers making patterns on her skin. W-i-l-l. Y-o-u. M-a-r-r-y. M-e. Calina sits bolt upright immediately, turning to face her girlfriend, only to find that she is holding a small box that she must have had hidden in the set of drawers beside her bed because the darker-skinned girl definitely hasn’t seen it before. While Calina’s mind races, trying to work out exactly what is happening, Serana takes a deep breath in before speaking. “Calina. When we first met at Stanford, I had no idea what I was doing. I was lonely, nervous, and honestly at that point I think I just wanted to go home. When I met you… well, I discovered there was so much to life that I hadn’t explored. I told myself that I would never get into a relationship with anyone because my parents had such awful fights, and were generally unhappy together, but I fell in love with you, and I am happier with you than I have ever been under any other circumstances. If you’ll let me, I want to spend the rest of my life trying to make you just as happy. So… Calina Moore, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”  
Calina smiles and nods wordlessly, tears of happiness immediately springing to her eyes. She lunges forward and captures her (now) fiancée’s lips with her own in a searing kiss as Serana slips the ring on her finger. The kiss lasts for approximately thirty seconds before the need for air becomes too great and the two of them have to part, and Calina draws a breath in, smiling at the other woman. “God. Yes, Serana Volkihar, yes. I will marry you”.  
~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~ ~-~  
Calina fights back the urge to panic as she stands at the altar, waiting patiently. From beside her, her sister places an encouraging hand on her shoulder. “Hey, sis, it’s okay. Don’t panic. Remember, Serana loves you just as much as you love her. Nothing is going to go wrong, the two of you are going to get married and live very happy and long lives together. Just focus on that, alright?”  
Calina nods, smoothing out her white dress with her gloved hands, even though she’s done the same motion multiple times in the past few minutes and she knows all too well that her dress is already perfectly smooth. Despite her sister’s words, she is definitely still panicking. Before she has a chance to say anything though, she can hear the music suddenly start and she looks down the aisle to where a beautiful black-haired girl in a white dress similar to her own is standing. Serana’s own dress is simple, though elegant. It clings tightly to her body in a way that reminds Calina somewhat of the champagne flutes that she knows they’ll have at the reception, accentuating her fiancée’s slender form, though it is wider around her lower legs. Her raven hair is tied back, with a single strand falling loose to brush against each of her cheeks, and as she walks towards the altar where Calina is waiting a gentle breeze lifts the strands, playing with them and causing Serana to laugh. She is wearing very little makeup, from what the journalist can see, what little she is wearing being enough to highlight her already-gorgeous features. and her mouth forms itself into a soft smile as the laughter stops and her eyes meet Calina’s. As she joins Calina at the altar, the entirety of the world apart from the two of them and the priest performing the ceremony seems to fall away. The darker skinned girl is only dimly aware of the priest speaking, until suddenly there is a pause and Serana nods at her. Remembering the words that she has spent the last few months learning off by heart, Calina speaks. “Serana. From the moment I first met you, I knew there was something special about you. Something unique. I’ve never felt the way I feel about you about anyone else in my life, and I wake up every day infinitely grateful that I have you in my life. I promise to love you with all my heart, from now until the end of time, whatever life takes us through. And I cannot wait to begin building our life together”.  
She gives the slightest of nods to Serana, who is smiling back at her. “Calina. Honestly, what can I say that I haven’t already told you? You bring light to my life every day. You helped me to believe in magic and love again, to find the strength I needed to finally remove myself from my parents’ presence for good, and you make me happier than I honestly thought anyone ever could. There is no-one that I would rather be standing here with today than you. I love you; I will always love you, and I am honoured to be able to call you the love of my life, my partner, and after today, my wife”.  
Calina tunes out again as the preacher speaks some more, and she is only broken from her thoughts when her fiancée’s hand takes hers, squeezing tightly. “Calina, before your family and friends, do you take Serana as your beloved wife, to have and to hold, through laughter and in sadness, through challenges and successes, so long as you both shall live?”  
Her next words come as naturally to her as breathing. “I do”.  
The priest repeats the question, this time to Serana, and Calina can see the love of her life’s breathing pause slightly at the word ‘family’, but the woman nods. “I do”.  
“Then by the power vested in me by the state of California, I happily pronounce you wife and wife! You may kiss the bride!”  
Calina smiles as Serana’s lips meet hers.


End file.
